Columbia
Professor Amar Bhide has a new book out titled “The Venturesome Economy: How
Innovation Sustains Prosperity in a More Connected World.” (here) He puts an emphasis on accessing research and
development done abroad and then commercializing the new ideas in the US. Thinking strategically, this matches up well with my arguments for more educational emphasis on world languages and time spent studying abroad. Both improve the bringing home of ideas initially developed in foreign languages and countries. Such programs could provide Oregon with a competitive economic edge.
The
Economist cites Bhide’s arguments (here):
First, he argues that the obsession with the number of doctorates and
technical graduates is misplaced because the “high-level” inventions and ideas
such boffins come up with travel easily across national borders. Even if China
spends a fortune to train more scientists, it cannot prevent America from
capitalising on their inventions with better business models.
That points to his next insight, that the commercialisation, diffusion and
use of inventions is of more value to companies and societies than the initial
bright spark. America’s sophisticated marketing, distribution, sales and
customer-service systems have long given it a decisive advantage over rivals,
such as Japan in the 1980s, that began to catch up with its technological
prowess. For America to retain this sort of edge, then, what the country needs
is better MBAs, not more PhDs.
America also has another advantage: the extraordinary willingness of its consumers to try new things. Mr Bhidé insists that such “venturesome consumption” is a vital counterpart to the country’s entrepreneurial business culture.
International strategist Tom Barnett, where I first read of Bhide, puts it this way (here):
…Upshot? Blow off the dire predictions of "techno-nationalism."
Notice how we always talk about America losing all its technology to the
world but then assume that rising New Core powers like India and China will
somehow be able to hoard theirs?
Bottom line: innovation is the most globalized part of globalization.
Booz & Company rank global companies by innovation every year and their
data shows no correlation between spending on R&D and better financial
performance. The key, the company finds, is that multinationals that do best
are the ones that take a global approach to accessing research vice
concentrating such spending and effort in their home market….
So, Oregon gear up your world language programs and send your students all
over the world in large numbers.
The key, the company finds, is that multinationals that do best are the ones that take a global approach to accessing research vice concentrating such spending and effort in their home market….
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